Eminent author Ruskin Bond has been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour given by the literary organisation.
Due to his ill health, the honour was given to him by Sahitya Akademi president Madhav Kaushik and Sahitya Akademi secretary K. Sreenivasarao, at his Mussoorie home, an official release said.
Mr. Bond’s son was also present on the occasion.
Born on May 19, 1934 in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, Mr. Bond has been active in the world of writing for more than 50 years and has written in various genres of literature.
His early works of fiction include short-story collections and novels as well as some autobiographical works. Later, he also wrote non-fiction, romance and children’s books. His favourite genres are essays and stories.
His notable works include Vagrants in the Valley, Once Upon a Monsoon Time, Angry River, Strangers in the Night, All Roads Lead to Ganga, Tales of Fosterganj, Leopard on the Mountain and Too Much Trouble.
The 1978 Hindi film Junoon is based on Ruskin’s historical novel A Flight of Pigeons (Indian Rebellion of 1857).
Adaptations of his stories were aired on Doordarshan as the TV serial Ek Tha Rusty and several of his stories The Night Train at Deoli, Time Stops at Shamli and Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra (Sahitya Akademi Award 1992) were included in the school curriculum in India. In 2005, his popular children’s novel The Blue Umbrella was made into a film.
Mr. Bond did a small role in the 2011 film 7 Khoon Maaf directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, which is based on his story Susanna’s Seven Husbands.
He has been honoured with Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2019, and the Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puraskar in 2012.
